Making connections around the world and beyond

When University of Pittsburgh students Sebastian Shaffer and Jacob Wendt joined Panther Amateur Radio Club (PARC), they were excited to fix ham radios, work on the antenna atop Benedum Hall, and connect with operators from as far away as Australia.

This year, however, PARC and the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering had a unique opportunity neither Shaffer nor Wendt could have anticipated when they joined the club. NASA chose Pitt as one of eight academic institutions to track the Orion space capsule during the Artemis II mission. PARC members designed and assembled a system on the roof of Benedum Hall to track a manned craft hurtling through space.

“This has been an amazing opportunity to work with a team to design and build a system that incorporates AI and the analog technology that attracted us to the club,” said Shaffer, president of PARC and a fifth-year computer engineering student.

The first social media

More than a century ago, amateur radio at Pitt launched in 1915, when the University received experimental license 8YJ from the Department of Commerce. Widespread use of AM radio didn’t exist then. In fact, it was Westinghouse, in Pittsburgh, that launched the first commercially licensed AM radio in 1920.

Since its inception, the club has provided Pitt faculty and students the opportunity to work with new technology and connect with people from around the world.

Located on the twelfth floor of Benedum Hall, the PARC office - nicknamed “The Shack” - is chock full of ham radios and electronics. The walls are filled with postcards and awards from competitions where students make the most points of contact with other operators.

“Ham radio is the first social media,” said Juan Manfredi, professor of mathematics and faculty sponsor for the club.

Connecting and creating

“I was always the kid who would run around fixing teachers’ computers,” Shaffer said. In fact, during Covid, his high school hired him to help establish a virtual network and support teachers during remote learning.

At Pitt, Shaffer joined Pitt Digital, where a colleague told him about PARC. Although he had no experience with amateur radio, he attended a meeting and, as he said, “I was fascinated with it. I started studying for my technician’s license.”

Wendt, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, has always liked to fix things too. Growing up, he would take apart and put back together any device he could get his hands on. As a Boy Scout, he learned about ham radio and received his technician class license.

By the time he came to Pitt, Wendt’s interest in radios had waned, but then he attended a PARC meeting. “There were all these radios and electronics, and we just started working on them. I fell back in love with it.”

Today, he’s studying to get his general class license.

Finding community around the world 

Manfredi’s interest in electrical engineering started in Spain, where he grew up. To make ends meet, his father fixed electronics in the evening, and, as Manfredi recalled, “I got to see all these devices and thought, ‘I want to work with that.’”

Although he would study mathematics, Manfredi never lost interest in electronics and radios, and after coming to America for graduate school at Washington University, he visited the radio club. “I saw the antennas and thought, ‘I’m going there.’”

Manfredi came to Pitt in 1989, and in 2010, after the unexpected passing of Glenn Alec Stewart, Dean of the Honors College, he stepped into the role of PARC faculty sponsor. Manfredi had never forgotten the community he found at that first radio club.

Connecting with Orion

PARC meets weekly and members share updates, discuss competitions, and work on projects. Each year, members volunteer with the Pittsburgh Marathon. “We bring hand-held radios and stand with the EMS services in case cell service goes down during an emergency,” Shaffer said.

This year, through the collaboration with NASA, they turned their attention to space.

“NASA is interested in seeing if faculty and students can use amateur equipment to track Orion,” said Samuel Dickerson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Vice Chair for Education and Director of Computer Engineering Undergraduate Program. “We were fortunate that they selected Pitt.”

PARC members and Pitt faculty designed the system and with the support of Alan George, Department Chair, R&H Mickle Endowed Chair, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and SHREC and Pitt Space founder, acquired needed equipment.

“For the past few months, we’ve been building the antenna, the dish, and the helical feed. We’ve been getting all the software to work with software-defined radios,” said Wendt. “It's given us a chance to work with new equipment.”

The team has used AI to develop a tool to track Orion in relationship to Pitt and another to interpret any data they receive.  

“The signal could be so low we won’t know if we’ve even received anything,” Shaffer said.

After the mission launched, PARC members and Pitt faculty would meet on the roof of Benedum Hall, sometimes in the early morning hours of 4:00 a.m. They would work to locate Orion and position the dish and antennas to receive a signal.

Beyond connections

“When you have a ham radio and a license, wherever you go in the world, you have friends,” Manfredi said.

When PARC members hear from people visiting Pittsburgh, they reach out. They’ve provided advice about places to stay and sights to see. Sometimes they share a meal.

“We never talk about politics. We never talk about religion. We talk about radios instead,” said Manfredi. “We talk about food.”

The club now has something else to talk about: the remarkable work Pitt students did to connect with Orion during its historic mission.

While Manfredi’s fascination with ham radios first led him to advise the club, it’s the students who keep him there. “I like to be surprised by the students,” he said. “And they are always doing something new and exciting.”